Mayoral candidates try to rock the Millennial vote

Chicago's mayoral candidates are trying to connect with young voters before they head to the polls on Feb. 24th.Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page. (Leonor Vivanco)

Leonor VivancoRedEye

A fundraiser at a tattoo parlor. A mustache invasion at a rally. College campus forums. And of course Facebook posts and YouTube videos.

Chicago’s mayoral candidates are trying to tap into the hip factor, in hopes of wooing 20-something and 30-something voters when they head to the polls on Feb. 24th.

But whether their message resonates enough to nudge young voters to polls remains to be seen. In 2011, the last city election, voters ages 18 to 34 accounted for roughly 18 percent of the total ballots cast.

“I haven’t really experienced too much reaching out to be honest or felt that I have a personal connection with any one specific candidate,” said Jasmin Dobson, 31, a career advisor who lives in Hyde Park.

As an undecided voter, she is interested in finding out how the candidates plan to lower crime and improve the transition from college to employment before choosing a candidate to support.

“I just want to see Chicago grow and to thrive and to continue to be a city where people not only feel safe coming here but also feel that they’ll get a good job and be able to stay and continue to contribute to the community overall,” Dobson said.

The Young Progressives for Chuy, an offshoot of Garcia’s campaign that bubbled up to engage young adults, last month hosted back-to-back events: the One Chicago rally in Woodlawn and a fundraiser at a tattoo parlor in Little Village.

Supporters wore adhesive mustaches and held up cutouts of mustaches—to mimic the candidate’s signature ’stache— to their faces. The group also sold $1 buttons in which the red stars on the city flag were swapped out for red mustaches, $5 posters that read “Keep Calm and Vote for the Stache” and $20 T-shirts featuring the city flag in the shape of a mustache.

Though he hasn’t raised as much campaign cash as incumbent Emanuel, Garcia has praised young people as being the greatest asset of his campaign and hired young people on his campaign staff.

Young adults bring energy, brain power and creativity to the campaign, said Jesse Hoyt, 27, who is a deputy field director for Garcia’s campaign.

Case in point: the “Dump Rahm” event set for Valentine’s Day.The campaign plans to have college students encourage voters to break up with Emanuel using the line “it’s not us, it’s you” and instead support Garcia by casting ballots during the early voting period.

The most important tactic for the candidates to focus on if they're looking to mobilize Millennial voters would be face-to-face contact for young people.— Meghan Condon, visiting assistant professor of public policy at Loyola University Chicago

For his part, Emanuel has been sharing his agenda via social media, TV and radio ads. He’s even been spotted chatting up younger voters at CTA stops and hanging out at places where young adults could meet him, like the Sam Smith concert last month at UIC.

“Policies and your ideas matter as much as how you communicate them and I don’t think how you communicate them trumps what you have to say to them,” Emanuel said. He says his ‘to-do list’ for next term includes projects that Chicago’s younger generation cares about, such as rebuilding and upgrading CTA train stations, expanding the Divvy bike sharing program and building three dozen parks.

When it comes to issues, young adults and volunteers on Fioretti’s campaign have the opportunity to push for initiatives they believe to be important to their peers, such as expanding the tech incubator concept and vocational education and implementing body cameras for police accountability, said Amara Enyia.

A one-time mayoral candidate, Enyia, 31, dropped out of the race and joined Fioretti’s campaign as a policy adviser. Fioretti also has hosted Friday’s with Fioretti, a meet and greet event at bars like Zella in Lincoln Park where young professionals hang out.

The message candidates want to share with voters is important but so is the person delivering that message, said Meghan Condon, visiting assistant professor of public policy at Loyola University Chicago.

“The most important tactic for the candidates to focus on if they’re looking to mobilize Millennial voters would be face-to-face contact for young people,” Condon said. Even more so if that personal contact comes from another young person, she said.

Wilson hopes to appeal to young voters by billing himself as an honest businessman, not a politician. He also has young people helping with social media for his campaign. He counts more than 37,000 on his personal Twitter account plus nearly 300 more on his election account where photos of students attending Columbia College and Harold Washington College holding with his campaign’s promotional cards get posted.

Meanwhile, Walls said he’s not only encouraged young people to be election judges but he’s used Facebook to promote his interviews and appearances and approached young people in neighborhoods and on street corners to tell them about his plans to create jobs and bring grocery stores to food deserts.

Condon said being active on social media has value.

“It’s a great first step. But when you talk about getting young people to show up to vote, it’s a personal face to face message from a friend or other young people that really matters,” she said.